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Guest Stratus_Fractus

w32opuserve k worm virus TOTALLY destroys HDD...

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Guest abent

:-8 I lost ALL my downloaded files of nearly 2 years. I have learned a valuable lesson. I did not have a CD burner or zip drive to make backups. Nor, in my utter foolishness, did I record on paper any of my registration codes for all the products I bought:DF734, RadarContact, ActiveSky, FSMeteo, Cheyenne400 ...and the list goes on. Not to mention dozens of freeware files. And to boot, I live in the north and have a very slow dial-up connection.The virus took hold of my system and all I could get was a black screen saying that I had an illegal copy of Windows. I called the number on the screen and found out that the only solution was to reinstall windows. Well, I took my puter to the shop and they said they could install windows on a new HDD and ghost over the files. When they tried to do that the HDD they were trying to copy from said 820Gigabytes.Downloading Norton 2003 now. I have never used anti-virus software in my 8-9 years of being on the net.I sincerely hope this doesn't happen to anyone else!!!!As far as the software downloads I have, all I have is credit card receipts of having paid for the products. I highly doubt that that will suffice.Anyway, Happy New Year to all!Adam

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Guest Stratus_Fractus

Sorry to hear that, that must really suck. If you bought NAV you may have been able to boot of the CD and remove the virus, while leaving your HDD intact. But oh well, what's done is done. BTW, downloading NAV2003, do they allow downloads of it now?

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Guest abent

Hi Stratus, Yes you can download it. Apparently they also send you a copy in the mail.I still have the old HDD. Once I have nav2003, I might be able to boot the old HDD?The guys at the computer store said that one could procure the services of a data recovery co and they could probably do it but it would cost a LOT!It's a shame because if I could access it it would sure save a lot of time and money. I don't suppose that Norton has a utility to open HDD's that are experiencing, well, trouble? Though I assume if that was possible that the techs at the computer store would have tried that.Oh well...live and learn.Thanks, Adam

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There is a way to recover your data (I think)... I believe there is a program out there that costs less than $100 that will attempt to recover all your data. (I know that this program fits on a floppy disk and can be downloaded onece you pay for it.) I would do a search on Google for Data Recovery, see what you come up with. Sorry I don't know the name of this magic program (from what I've heard it works great...)PS. Don't touch the old HD until you are ready to restore the data, the more you mess with the old one the more likely it is that you won't be able to recover your data...Again, sorry I didn't have very much info...Cpudan80

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Guest Stratus_Fractus

Well, NAV says on the CD that it can be used as an emergency recovery disk, presumeably to delete viruses, provided that you can boot of a CD.http://www.pcmaestro.com/bootdisk.htmShows that NAV is an emergency boot disk, which means it can probably remove the virus.

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Guest UweR

Hi, the tool I have repeatedly (and successfully) used at work is called EasyRecovery, published by www.Ontrack.com I think you can still download the free trial version that evaluates if the data is lost or not (but it doesn

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Guest abent

Hi Uwe, Yeah, this is a major perdicament for me as I'm not that facile with computers. I wouldn't even know how to get the drive to boot again if I was to hook it back up. I did some searching and discovered a program for $69.00 that claims to be able to retrieve data no matter what happened. Sounded a little too good to be true. I got Norton2003 installed and running. I'm just surprised that I wasn't given any advice from the computer techs remotely like I've received here in such short order on this forum.I'm terribly afraid that if I hooked up the old drive that I would just get the black "Illegal Operating System License" message associated with this virus and be stuck there. My reading of the virus leads me to believe that it really messes thing up including CMOS settings etc. Beyond my understanding I'm afraid.I'll have to do more reading.Anyway, thanks a lot for your advice. I'll look into this further.AdamP.s I guess it's called opaserve, not opuserve as previously posted.

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Guest abent

Thanks all you guys for the help so far, Adam

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Guest Stratus_Fractus

Not too sure to go from here, but can you make a boot/recovery CD/disk from NAV2003 download edition? I'm almost 100% positive that if you boot from it you can remove the virus and recover your data. I'd call the PC store and see what they think. If you have an old machine, you could try hooking the HDD up to it to fix it (hopefully) and then not risk losing your BIOS or anything that you've reinstalled on the new machine.HTH, good luck

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Guest abent

Hi Stratus, When I installed nav2003 it asked if I wanted to make recovery disk and that I would need 8 floppy disks! Being as prepared as I am, of course I don't have 8 floppys hanging around. My plan was to pick them up as soon as I can get to a store, then make the recovery disk(s)The only option I would have is to replace the new HDD with the old one, but I can't see how it would boot as the virus is in there and is causing Windows not to open. If I understand what you're saying, I might be able to use the recovery disk created in the system with the new HDD, then put in the old HDD and use the disks to boot the old HDD?I'm just bemused by the fact that not one of the techs suggested any possible solutions. I got a number of different explanations all the way from "your HDD is toast" to "you can have your data recovered by a DR company".All very confusing!Thanks man, Adam

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Guest

Adam: I know this does not help or make you feel any better BUT.......NEVER, EVER, EVER go online without antivirus running.There are so many a**holes out there that think they are the smartest people in the world just because they can wreak havoc with other people's computers.I can't say on this forum what I would like to do to everyone of them.I know one thing, killing is too good for them. Sad part is that these morons are really smart people and it's a shame that they don't put this knowledge to some productive endeavor.I know that you have learned your lesson and I thank you for posting and thereby letting someone else that thinks this is a perfect world of computers know to be sure to use antivirus software ALL THE TIME.Ya all be keerful out there, ya heer?

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Guest

I believe a new law just went through congress making the penalty "up to life imprisonment" for intentionally hacking into computer systems and/or spreading virus'. No more community service for these pigs.

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Guest Stratus_Fractus

>Hi Stratus, >>When I installed nav2003 it asked if I wanted to make >recovery disk and that I would need 8 floppy disks! Being as >prepared as I am, of course I don't have 8 floppys hanging >around. My plan was to pick them up as soon as I can get to >a store, then make the recovery disk(s) >>The only option I would have is to replace the new HDD with >the old one, but I can't see how it would boot as the virus >is in there and is causing Windows not to open. >>If I understand what you're saying, I might be able to use >the recovery disk created in the system with the new HDD, >then put in the old HDD and use the disks to boot the old >HDD? >>I'm just bemused by the fact that not one of the techs >suggested any possible solutions. I got a number of >different explanations all the way from "your HDD is toast" >to "you can have your data recovered by a DR company". >>All very confusing! >>Thanks man, >>Adam Yes that's what I meant. I think that the old HDD can still be booted off recovery disks to remove the virus, after which you can probably transfer files over that you need. Not too sure if this is right, but it's worth a try.

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